STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN, but Rep. Brendan Crighton of Lynn is poised to become the newest senator on the North Shore. Crighton will walk uncontested on the ballot into the Senate seat held for the past 14 years by Lynn Mayor-elect Thomas McGee barring the emergence of a write-in candidate who would […]
Elections
Posted inThe Download
On sexual assault, a partisan divide
It is widely anticipated that Minnesota Sen. Al Franken will announce his resignation today, as the number of cases of alleged sexual misconduct against him grows. If the one-time Saturday Night Live comic does take his leave, he’ll be the second Democratic member of Congress to resign this week under the cloud of sexual misconduct […]
Posted inThe Back Story
An exercise in democracy or a crapshoot?
THE DEMOCRATIC CONTEST to succeed retiring US Rep. Niki Tsongas is shaping up to be a wild scramble, with 12 candidates in the race as of this week. On the Republican side, three candidates have thrown their hats in the ring so far. As much as the race looks like a healthy outpouring of democratic […]
Posted inOpinion
Shift to women on Boston City Council is astounding
THERE’S BEEN MUCH BUZZ around Boston since last week’s election which resulted in the historic victories of two additional women of color to the Boston City Council. Councilors-elect Lydia Edwards and Kim Janey will join four incumbent women of color councilors in January, marking the first time in the city’s history that nearly half (48 […]
Posted inPolitics
Lowell’s single-issue election
ELECTIONS, as they say, have consequences. This is certainly the case in Lowell, where voters on Tuesday delivered a stunning rebuke to their elected officials and their decision to relocate the city’s sole public high school from downtown to its suburban edge. In the process, voters also showed that consensus can emerge in a city riven by race, class, and […]
Posted inThe Download
For women, news seems good and bad
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Overused as they are, it seems hard to avoid the sense that the famed first lines describing the runup to the French Revolution also apply this week to the state of things involving women in American society Today’s context, of course, centers on […]
Posted inThe Download
A new start in Framingham, old faces elsewhere
If you’re starting with a fresh form of government, you might as well have a fresh face. At least that’s what Framingham voters thought after giving a convincing win to political newcomer Yvonne Spicer over former selectman and five-time legislator John Stefanini, a major force behind the charter question that turned Framingham into a city. […]
Posted inPolitics
Brockton candidate already a winner
WITH MAYORAL RACES in the gun lap around the state, most eyes are on what’s happening in Boston and then maybe on Lawrence and Framingham or Newton. But little attention has been paid to the race in Brockton, where incumbent Mayor Bill Carpenter is challenged by 26-year-old Jimmy Pereira, one of the more unlikely and […]
Posted inThe Download
Walsh plays it cute in council contest
It’s less than a week until Boston’s municipal election, which means we’re officially in the silly season phase. This stage of the race is the one in which we’re reminded of a time-honored Boston act of political hair-splitting: the offering of support for a candidate, but not a formal endorsement. The silly season episode this […]
Posted inThe Download
Worcester power couple unplugged
Michael and Coreen Gaffney, the aspiring power couple of Worcester politics, pulled out of their races for City Council to pursue an “opportunity” they declined to talk about because “the local hate groups and media make it unwise to reveal our plans.” Michael Gaffney, the second-highest vote getter in the last municipal election, was running […]